Few Warhammer 40k players can claim to know their armies as well as Calvin Foster, an Adeptus Custodes player from Des Moines, Iowa. Since April 2022 he’s recorded detailed stats for his army in over 250 games – not just the wins and losses, not just which units score points and which are destroyed, but in so much granular detail that he knows exactly what each of his Custodians has achieved in service to the Emperor.
Foster started playing Warhammer 40k, and the Custodes, in spring 2021. “I thought it would be cool if each model had a name, leaning into the ‘Earning of a Name’ aspect of Custodes lore”, he recalls. With the help of a buddy who owned a 3D printer he began making nameplates. Then, he says, “I had the epiphany that if they all had unique names, I could track what each model accomplished in a game”.
Foster began tracking data in April 2022, just after a dataslate update to the Custodes’ 9th edition rules. His record keeping is exhaustive. He brings a “printed out Excel sheet with five pages, one for each round, and the name of every model I’m using that game” to every battle.
Each round, he records how much damage a model does; how many and what type of models they killed; actions completed; objective markers held; assists; if a model dies; and special notes if they do something extraordinarily good or bad. In cases where it’s not clear who did what, like a squad collectively dismantling a Repulsor Executioner, he randomizes who gets the glory.
“Once the game is over, I’ll note how many list building points the models they killed are worth, and how many victory points they earned… and enter it into my spreadsheet where I track each model’s stats over their whole career”. This lets Foster “track things like win rate, KDR, and VP earned per game”. He aggregates data from individual models to generate the expected performance of typical units.
He’s also fulfilling his original plan of granting his Custodians deed names. “When someone does something extraordinary they ‘Earn a Name’, be it a good one or bad one, related to the feat performed or failed”, he explains. As it stands, Foster says “my original Trajan model has the most good names earned, at five, and one of my grav tanks, Masada, has the most fail names earned, also at five”.
Foster has been able to track trends in unit performance across editions. In 10th edition, Caladius Grav Tanks were “our best and most reliable datasheet all edition, and haven’t been nerfed or buffed once since the edition started”, whereas “Trajan fell off when our 10th edition codex dropped”.
I actually spoke to Foster quite early this year, before the new edition launched, so I checked in with him recently to find out about his hopes for the Custodes’ upcoming Warhammer 40k 11th edition codex release. “I’m digging the increase in durability, and I like how the army rule has some flexibility to it and requires more thought than just smashing the lethals or sustained button like a caveman”, he says.
Foster says his data doesn’t have a huge impact on his list building decisions “other than [identifying] ‘this unit is good, let’s take three of them'”. When there’s a choice between models in his collection that could fulfil a role, he takes “whichever models of that datasheet have the fewest games logged yet”.
But he does admit to developing superstitions. “One of the Grav Tanks, Mammoth, has underperformed the other two in the kills category, but has wildly outperformed them and everything else in my army in the VP earned category”. He says that’s quite common in the data: “each datasheet seems to have one or two models that perform much higher or lower than its brethren”.
Foster says he makes game decisions “based on what will help me when, versus what will help a model’s stats”, and “”I always root for the underperformers, but in no way do I put my thumb on the scale”. “Letting things happen as they may also adds to the narrative of the whole thing, instead of trying to ‘fix’ things”, he adds.
When you put the same models on the table again and again it’s inevitable that you’ll develop stories for them, but Foster really has taken it to the next level. Tracking unit stats is a good tool for competitive players, but Foster shows how well it works as a prompt for developing the narrative of your army. Do you have any minis that you’ve developed a real story around? The community in the Wargamer Discord would love to see pics and hear their saga.
Source: Wargamer
